The lion in West Africa is critically endangered

Philipp Henschel; Lauren Coad; Cole Burton; Beatrice Chataigner; Andrew Dunn; David MacDonald; Yohanna Saidu; Luke T B Hunter

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0083500

The lion in West Africa is critically endangered

PLoS One. 2014 Jan 8;9(1):e83500. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0083500. eCollection 2014.

Authors

Philipp Henschel¹, Lauren Coad², Cole Burton³, Beatrice Chataigner⁴, Andrew Dunn⁵, David MacDonald⁶, Yohanna Saidu⁷, Luke T B Hunter¹

Affiliations

¹ Panthera, New York, New York, United States of America.
² Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom ; School of Geography and Environmental Planning, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
³ Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada ; Biology Department, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
⁴ IUCN, Protected Area Program, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
⁵ Wildlife Conservation Society, Nigeria Program, Calabar, Nigeria.
⁶ Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, The Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Oxford, United Kingdom.
⁷ Nigeria National Park Service, Garki-Abuja, Nigeria.

Abstract

The African lion has declined to <35,000 individuals occupying 25% of its historic range. The situation is most critical for the geographically isolated populations in West Africa, where the species is considered regionally endangered. Elevating their conservation significance, recent molecular studies establish the genetic distinctiveness of West and Central African lions from other extant African populations. Interventions to save West African lions are urgently required. However formulating effective conservation strategies has been hampered by a lack of data on the species' current distribution, status, and potential management deficiencies of protected areas (PAs) harboring lions. Our study synthesized available expert opinion and field data to close this knowledge gap, and formulate recommendations for the conservation of West African lions. We undertook lion surveys in 13 large (>500 km²) PAs and compiled evidence of lion presence/absence for a further eight PAs. All PAs were situated within Lion Conservation Units, geographical units designated as priority lion areas by wildlife experts at a regional lion conservation workshop in 2005. Lions were confirmed in only 4 PAs, and our results suggest that only 406 (273-605) lions remain in West Africa, representing <250 mature individuals. Confirmed lion range is estimated at 49,000 km², or 1.1% of historical range in West Africa. PAs retaining lions were larger than PAs without lions and had significantly higher management budgets. We encourage revision of lion taxonomy, to recognize the genetic distinctiveness of West African lions and highlight their potentially unique conservation value. Further, we call for listing of the lion as critically endangered in West Africa, under criterion C2a(ii) for populations with <250 mature individuals. Finally, considering the relative poverty of lion range states in West Africa, we call for urgent mobilization of investment from the international community to assist range states to increase management effectiveness of PAs retaining lions.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Africa, Western
Animals
Budgets
Conservation of Natural Resources* / economics
Data Collection
Endangered Species* / economics
Geography
Lions / physiology*
Population Dynamics
Predatory Behavior

Grants and funding

Field survey efforts were funded by Panthera (www.panthera.org), with additional funds from National Geographic's Big Cat Initiative (grant B1_12; http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/big-cats/). LC furthermore acknowledges the support of the Oxford Martin School, and DWM the Recanati-Kaplan Foundation and Robertson Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.